I watched the drake, Mavrich, glide out of Valen’s place, and turned to her while depositing my drained tea cup on her oaken table. “Thanks for that, it’ll speed things along nicely. Any tips?” I rose to my feet stretching out my back. Antics had costs.
“He is as straightforward as he seems, and it will be imperative that you provide immediate benefit to the party so they will consider clearing the dungeon of dangers for you and Night beyond the second floor. I think even you can pull that off since, while outwardly nothing is interesting about you, your ranger build should allow you immediate successes in that dungeon - as I am sure you were aware,” Valen shuffled about while bussing the tea service.
“Was there anything else?” she asked as she turned away from me to continue her day.
“Nope, all good. Thanks again!” I took the hint and walked away. Bending down outside the doorway, I ran my hands through Night’s fur and asked “Well, thoughts? You were awfully quiet - I missed your patter of incessant observations of inability.”
Night’s response was to rise to her feet, shake loose her relaxation and cock her head at me. “There’s plenty of time for that. And we have four days, let’s make use of them. The drake, Mavrich, didn’t mention the capabilities of the party, but if he saw your bow, which is impossible to miss, then he probably built the team around you. They will be expecting you to primarily be able to damage things quickly since you lined me up as a scout. We need to up your perception so you have a chance to do just that. Time to go people-watching and get in some bow training which will be a fast way to work on the fundamentals for those skills. Might as well feed two birds with one scone at the guild training grounds.”
I laughed out loud, adjusted my gear and stepped out into the street. Slipping into the foot traffic with a large predator was always an enjoyable experience for me, as even the hardiest of adventurers gave a respectful distance. I let Night weave us through street after street to arrive at the Adventurer Guild. I pulled out of the flow of traffic and inspected the building before us.
Solidly built of dark gray stone, it was a squat square affair with a main entrance and several side entrances with clearly marked purpose nailed above their doors on brightly painted signs. The second story’s barred multi-hued windows glittered in the sun while showing off the heroic deeds of many an adventurer. Looked pricey to be a member of, and very defensible. I rated it 4.5 stars with room for up or downgrading based on what we found inside.
Rejoining the flow of foot traffic, I strolled cockily into the side entrance that had training dummies painted over it and was immediately inundated with the sounds of overlapping conversations interlacing a myriad of purposes. Heading straight to the counter with an air of well-meaning and entitled exuberance, I arrived and settled my bow on the counter before the attendant. Her horns were wrapped in bright ribbons and bells that were tinkling softly as she scribed away in a ledger, and if she stood she had to be at least one and a half times as tall as me.
Hunched over as she was, my head was level with hers and I could smell an aroma of cedar wafting off her short shaggy reddish fur. I leaned forward over my bow to capture her attention and noticed that the muscles on her arms had the definition of one who wielded gigantic weapons which was a fun image. A giggle burst free at the image of this Minotaur berserker in flowing sheer pants and dangling bangles wielding a massive bastard sword and swinging it around like a child playing at flying while a gentle serenade resonated from her horn bells.
At my not-so-muffled giggle, she paused in her writing and slowly roved her eyes up my frame. I hadn’t ever had the opportunity to experience that happening to me - having someone rake their eyes up my body with the tip of their tongue caught playfully in their teeth - and it was absolutely a brain-stopper. My eyebrows and heart rate rose higher with each millisecond her eyes slithered up my torso, arms, neck and face until her gaze landed on my own.
I felt distinctly disrobed and wasn’t quite sure that was a fair trade for a giggle, but also really not mad in the least. Was it the gaze, was it the way her body shifted suggestively closer to me sending even more of that intimate cedar aroma to wrap around my loins, was it the frank and open dedication to slowly and attentively devouring every inch of me that her eyes roved over? No, I couldn’t place what exactly melted me, but there was zero denial of my liquefaction.
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Her sultry expression cleared faster than a firebolt cast by a Mythic Mage as she noticed she had my attention. Eyes shifting to absolute authority and immobilizing me while she barked out, “now that we’ve cleared that out freshie, stop leaning on me counter, show me yer Guild badge and tell me how long ye be renting the space for. They’re horns, lots of folks have ‘em, and plenty of ‘em chime, eh?! I ain’t got no time fer yer games elf. Or I can keep undressing you wit me eyes and see how long ‘til my wee hubby comes over and pounds ye inna ground, yeah? He be more threatened by the people with the dangly bits up top fer some reason.”
Floored at being so expertly manipulated and in stunning need of a cold shower, I started a slow clap while forcing words out to form, “uhm…no, no badge….new. Hour? No….half day.” I desperately cast about for Night so I could ground, then with a dawning horror realized how much teasing I was in for later.
Not waiting for me to gain equilibrium, the attendant spat out while haughtily smiling, “Fine. Unaffiliated rate be more. 3 silver.” She thrust her hand out to receive the payment. My assessment of the priciness of the establishment was spot on, and appreciation of her skill allowed me to fork over the 30 copper from my anemic coin pouch without hesitation.
“Third entrance on the left through the right door. Showers off the main halls’ fifth entrance on the left. Enjoy yer stay,” were her unironic words as she pointed to an archway to the right of me. It seemed money in hand had lowered her need to ground me into a hormonal paste which I was grateful for. Note to self, no counter-leaning here.
Picking up my bow and leaving my stuttering libido at the altar of her superior capability, I walked off with the hope that one day I could match the performance of that experience. I found myself heading to the appointed spot with a refrain of whatever that was it happened so fast. What was that? That was amazing. Where am I right now? Is that cedar smell gonna stay with me forever? I don't even like cedar. I need to focus.
Upon arriving at the training area, I shook off the last vestiges of my wistfully unique introduction to the adventurer’s guild and got to work being as skilled as any ranger was with their bow skill at level 2. That is to say, not very. I would benefit from instruction, but had successfully depleted my funding. And if that is what the attendants were capable of, there was no chance I could connive an instructor to impart their knowledge to me at a freemium.
Wandering around the training room, I ran my hands over the multi-shaped targets and guessed at their distances. I could appreciate that some targets were moving at various speeds and there were even simulated terrain areas for practice that would both push me and be interesting enough to keep me engaged while grinding through skill leveling.
Meanwhile, Night had padded into the space and engaged in no-holds-barred roasting - mentally bombarding me with hyperbolic images, copious evergreen scents and tidbits of pretend dialogue that underscored just how much she had enjoyed watching me squirm while getting handed my hat. And sure, it was well-deserved feedback, for some level zero to walk into an adventurer guild with any thought that they could fool anyone inside.
That was the high point of my next four days before meeting up with Mavich. Night and I fell into a routine of training our various skills. We would sit in the canteen people-watching and telling each other character background stories of everyone we saw around meal times then Analyze them to see if we got any of the details right. At night we snuck around after the guards for stealth and perception practice, and in the early mornings we scavenged herbs outside of town to sell which allowed us to afford more time in the training room.
Each day I was extremely respectful and serious while interacting with Heda - the name of the minotaur attendant I learned - and I did not receive a repeat performance of our initial interaction.
Night informed me that we were leveling at a decent pace, and apparently I had picked up the Cunning trait. I had jokes about linguists she groaned at and asked me not to share with others and never out loud. I appreciated that my wisdom was now receiving a percentage boost from my new trait. Night said she would let me know when I got the trait Not Funny which she assured me would equally decrease the percentage of my intelligence.
We agreed to disagree, and I silently blamed it all on Heda who had let me know in no uncertain terms that I indeed did have a libido. Alas, I did need to leave my jokes behind and go bring my A game to something somewhere someone’s Bane. Good thing I had my Quest map marker.